Chapter 7
Nine (POV)
Six rushes up to her room, her face tear-streaked, her clothes caked with mud, and her hair wet and straggly from pouring rain.
"Six, are you–" I begin.
She pushes past me without talking.
"Six!" I call after her.
"Just leave me alone!" She shrieks, spinning suddenly.
"Okay, okay. I just thought–"
"Nothing! Nothing, Nine. If you are going to ask, there is nothing wrong with me! I am not going crazy!"
"Woah, woah, woah! I never said you were!"
"But you implied it!" She yells.
"I did not! I–"
"Shut up, Nine!" She screams at me.
I feel confidence well up in me. I realize that all these times I've realized she's been staring at me, I was staring at her. I like her. I love her. And I want her to know.
"No, Six! Just let me talk!"
"I DON'T WANT TO! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UNDERSTAND THAT, NUMBER NINE?!"
"I have understood that you do not want to talk to me. But I want to talk to you. So just listen."
"I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN EITHER!"
"Why are you mad at me?"
"I'M NOT MAD AT YOU! I'M JUST MAD! AND TAKING IT OUT ON YOU!"
"You look more sad than mad."
"I DON'T CARE, NINE!"
"But I do!"
"I DON'T CARE THAT YOU CARE THAT I DON'T CARE!"
"But you should."
"BUT I DON'T! I DON'T CARE THAT YOU THINK THAT I SHOULD CARE THAT YOU CARE THAT I DON'T CARE!"
"Six–"
"DON'T YOU SIX ME!"
"I just–"
"Just leave me alone, okay?" She finally says, but she's not screaming this time.
"Six, please. I want you to know that, that... That you can... trust me?"
She doesn't scoff like she usually does. She doesn't say, "Right, Nine, like I would trust you, the least trustworthy person in the world,". Instead she says, "Um... Maybe I do."
Like she would. "Really?"
"Nine, I–I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be. I just–"
"Listen." Six took my hand and pulled me into her room. "I wanted to, to, to tell you something...?"
"Uh, I..."
"Nine, just listen. I... I like you." She finally says after a long pause.
"Um..." I feel increasingly awkward. "I like you too."
I mean, what else am I supposed to say?
She smiles, though. She grins at me. "Well."
"I mean, you wouldn't expect it... I've seen the way you look at–" I begin.
"Four?"
"Dude," I say.
"Yes, but, I... Well, I do like you. I mean, I have tried telling myself that I don't–"
"Because you're way too embarrassed to like someone with my reputation."
"Well, yes. And because..."
"Because what?"
"Because, because, because I just don't... I mean, I don't ever like someone the way I do you."
"You like Four. You said."
"Well... It's not like–I mean, he was probably just a crush–but still–"
"Why are you so torn up about him then? I mean, you look like you're going to burst into tears whenever you see him with Sarah."
"But that's mostly because of Sarah and how I think Four shouldn't be bringing a human along with us–"
"Don't lie, Six."
"I'm not–I mean–Yes. I do like him, I guess."
"And what about dear, dear Sam?"
"Well–"
"And yet you still admit that you can never like anyone?"
"Maybe some–"
"Even someone like Seven hasn't liked three boys at the same time!"
"I don't–I don't really like Sam, or Four, I just–"
"Look, Six, I like you! I can't push it away. I love you, Six."
"I–I love you, too. I... I don't really care about–about Four... or about–I just–I just want to be with you."
"I love you." I whisper. And I do. It's the truth, I do. I love her so much, Six, and I can remember that time last week, when the Mogs attack and I can see her on top of the truck and she's swinging at Mogs with her huge sword and she's shooting them down with their own cannons and I think, where else am I going to get a girl like her? and I know that even though I don't want to admit that I like someone, I like her and I love her, I do.
"I love you, too." She said, smiling at me.
I never really expected Six to say something like that. Like I said, she's Six. She claims she's tough. She is tough. But just sometimes.
"So, why were you so upset?" I ask her.
"No reason. It's–It's silly. Don't worry about it.I mean, I already said I don't care about Four–"
"Aha!"
"No, wait, just–"
"Okay, whatever then. As long as you're alright."
"I am."
I hold onto her, and I feel as if everything else in the world has vanished, and it's just me and her and she pulls me in, and her face is inches away, so close that I can see every tear clinging onto her long lashes, and I smell her flowery breath, and I draw close and I kiss her.
It's the best feeling, and I love it and I love her and I never want this to end. I wrap my arms around her and I hug her so tight because she's the one person in the world I've ever had feelings for and I know I'm never going to leave her and I don't want her to leave me, and that we're perfect together, we are.